So: Polaris was last weekend and it was an all-new con experience for me: as a vendor! A very interesting people-watching experience, I might add.
Friday we hit the road bright and early (we being PDaughter, Sandman7, JystDave and myself) and made it to Tee-Dot in good time with very little traffic congestion, woo! Checked in, registered, went for a swim, hit the bar, had supper, couple of panels, bed late-ish.
Saturday: Up early, breakfast buffet, set up my table next to the Two Wacky Pin Guys. They are great people and very informative. Also cool geeks to geek out with! Spent the day selling my books (!) to people - mainly people I knew, but some complete strangers which was a total blast. It's a relatively painless way to get to meet people and make Con connections, which makes a Con a lot of fun. "See that girl? She bought a copy of Truthseekers." I generally spend cons people-watching anyway so our spot just outside the Dealers Room was uniquely situated for that! Then: Supper (STARVING), Masquerade (paper plates are on parade!), Dance (you really haven't lived until you've joined a hundred geeks all doing the Robot to Domo Origato Mr. Roboto), drinks, very late night, followed by a way too early morning that started
Sunday: FIRE ALARM AT SIX AYEM. Yeargh. So we mostly slept through it (false alarm) and woke up, showered etc, brought all our stuff downstairs to the car in time for ANOTHER FIRE ALARM. Decided to get breakfast at Subway (meh) and wound up coming back just as the fire alarm was being turned off. Set up my table and everyone was off doing con stuff while I sat and sold a few more books. Finally met ThatBitterGuy!
Overall, turnout was very low this year. Maybe due to the guests or the flagging economy or the price of gas, who knows? Generally the dealers were all saying the same thing, so I don't think it was just me. Still, there's always next year!
On the whole I had a great time. It was a whole new experience for me, and one I would like to try again.
